


caught in your web (of love)

by ColorMeParanoid



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Arachnophobia, Communication, Fluff, Good Boyfriend Magnus Bane, Halloween, Light Angst, M/M, Scared Alec Lightwood, Spiders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27308413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColorMeParanoid/pseuds/ColorMeParanoid
Summary: "Magnus?" Alec calls out, voice a little shakier than he'd like as the door swings shut behind him, effectively trapping him in the living room with all of those nasty creatures that he desperately hopes are fake. But fake or not, his anxiety didn't care. His palms are already slick with sweat and his heart is trying to beat out of his chest.The entire ceiling looks like a demonic galaxy made out of white cotton candy and arachnids.OR Magnus decorates his apartment for Halloween. Alec doesn't handle it well.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 16
Kudos: 188





	caught in your web (of love)

Mundanes have a lot of odd traditions that Alec can’t understand, but the one that he finds the most perplexing is definitely Halloween. Dressing up as monsters and covering themselves in fake blood and collecting candy from stranger's houses? Really? Alec still can’t wrap his head around any of it. The purpose of his entire existence was to keep the mundanes away from actual, real life monsters and here they are, glorifying them every single year.

Izzy and Jace, to his great misfortune, find the whole thing hilarious. This year is no different and as a result, the Institute is overrun by pumpkins and skulls and other plastic trinkets that are supposedly spooky and a truly sickening amount of candy. They go as far as draping fake cobwebs everywhere they can reach, as if they didn’t have enough of real ones already.

(Seriously – high ceilings were a bitch to maintain.)

By the time the evening rolls around, Alec is done with everyone. From people lurking in the shadows dressed like monsters and exploring dark, dangerous alleys that made their night patrols even more complicated, to the groups of kids who every year without fail did their best to break into the Institute. It’s a serious downside of the glamour making it look like an old abandoned church with a graveyard to boot. In the end, calling the cops to chase them away is the only option they have other than scaring them senseless and even Alec isn’t that much of an asshole. Besides, drawing attention to themselves is only going to bring more people back the next year.

The last thing he expects when he arrives to the loft that evening and opens the door is to be greeted with a scene straight out of his worst nightmares. The first thing he notices are the cobwebs littering the ceiling, illuminated by eerie red lights coming from some unidentifiable place that serve as the only lighting in the room. It’s like walking straight into a demon nest and Alec’s hand automatically goes towards his seraph blade.

But what concerns him the most is the round black shapes stuck to the webs themselves, no doubt those creepy little toy spiders that Alec has downright banned from the Institute, despite his siblings whining that they were necessary to complete the creepy haunted house aesthetics.

It’s just plastic, Alec reminds himself as he takes a few timid steps into the room, eyes glued to the ceiling and trying to convince him that the spiders were, in fact, moving. It's probably just his mind playing tricks on him, but it didn’t matter. It’s still incredibly unsettling.

He should've known this was going to happen when Magnus said he was throwing a Halloween party. Now that he was too busy to throw regular events like he used to, he went all out on the few that he did. And this right here? This was definitely over the top, even for him. 

"Magnus?" Alec calls out, voice a little shakier than he'd like as the door swings shut behind him, effectively trapping him in the living room with all of those nasty creatures that he desperately hopes are fake. But fake or not, his anxiety didn't care. His palms are already slick with sweat and his heart is trying to beat out of his chest.

The entire ceiling looks like a demonic galaxy made out of white cotton candy and arachnids.

"Alexander!" Magnus walks towards him from the kitchen with a grin. He leans in for a kiss that Alec struggles to return, eyes open and scanning the room all the while. He knows the kind of magic spiders operate with. If he let them out of his sight for even one second, they'd vanish into thin air, never to be seen again.

"Hey," Alec says when Magnus pulls away, keeping him close more so for protection than anything else. "Sorry I'm late. When, uh, when did this happen?"

"Do you like it?" Magnus asks, completely oblivious to the waver in Alec's voice and he steps out of Alec's hold and points proudly at the ceiling. "I think I really outdid myself this year."

And okay, the spiders are definitely moving now. Alec watches with mounting dread as one slowly lowers down from the ceiling and lands right onto Magnus' shoulder. Instead of blazing it straight back to hell where it came from, Magnus reaches out with his hand and _tickles_ the damn thing until it starts to squirm and emits a shrill squeaky little noise that makes Alec's entire body quiver in terror.

"Wow," is all that Alec can say, voice cracking.

Magnus grins at him as the spider starts snuggling into the crease of his neck, what used to be Alec's favorite space to snuggle in when they curled up in bed together. Now, all he can imagine is tiny little spider hairs imbedded into the skin of Magnus’ neck that would transfer to him if he touches him there and- and it would be a whole fucking thing that Alec can’t bring himself to think about for a second longer.

Alec knows that his paranoia didn’t make a lot of sense, but then again, phobias rarely did.

"Not very realistic, I know," Magnus says, taking a step closer to him and Alec takes one back in tandem. "But they're so adorable. Do you want to hold one?"

More and more spiders begin to make their way down and Alec is on the verge of hyperventilating. His fight or flight response is taking over and no matter how much he wishes he could stay here and explain to Magnus that he and spiders did not get along, he could barely breathe, let alone form _words_. 

He looks over the loft with frantic eyes and realizes that the balcony doors were wide open and his best and fastest means of escape.

"Actually," he says, clearing his throat as he takes slow, even steps in that direction, never taking his eyes off of the thing watching him from Magnus' shoulder. "I just remembered that I have a- a thing, back in the Institute."

Magnus frowns. "A thing?"

"Yeah, a thing," Alec says, flinching when another spider drops into his eyesight, even though it’s nowhere close to him. "Very important."

"What about the party? Alexander-" Magnus tries, looking concerned and Alec feels incredibly guilty as he turns his back on him and bolts towards the balcony. The spiders are getting dangerously close to his head and if one of them so much as brushes against him he would will lose his ever-loving mind.

Out on the balcony, he takes gulping breaths of fresh, cold air and bats at the webs that had gotten caught up on his hair with shaky hands. His entire body feels itchy and he fights the urge to take off all of his clothes and shake them out, just to make sure nothing made it on him without him noticing.

He turns back towards the loft to see Magnus still standing exactly where he left him, a mix of shock and concern on his face. The spider from his shoulder has now migrated to the top of his head and the others are starting to land all over his shoulders and arms and Alec feels sick.

"I'm sorry," Alec says, but before Magnus can respond, he braces himself on the ledge of the balcony and jumps.

*

Back in his room in the Institute, Alec flops down onto his bed and tries to smother himself with a pillow. Sadly, it's not an effective tactic to rid him of his misery.

His phone buzzes again with an incoming message and Alec ignores it, just like he's ignored the previous ones. He did text Magnus once he’d calmed down to assure him that he was fine, but it clearly didn’t work.

When the knock comes at his door sometime later, he's not even surprised. He's been expecting it as soon as he left the loft. The the only reason Magnus waited this long to come to him was probably because he was giving him space to process everything and figure out what to say. Because they'll definitely have to talk about this. In all of the scenarios that could have sparked this particular conversation, this is the worst possible one.

When he doesn't say anything, the door opens just a crack and Magnus peeks in.

"Can I come in?" he asks and Alec sighs but gives him a nod as he sits up in bed. Before Magnus fully walks into the room, though, he stops him by holding up his hand.

"Are you sure that there aren’t spiders on you right now?" he asks, even though he can feel his face burn and he can't quite bring himself to meet his eyes.

"Completely sure," Magnus says, stepping closer to the bed. "I removed them all from the loft, too."

"Yeah?" He finally dares to look at Magnus who doesn't have a trace of amusement or pity on his face, only sympathy.

Magnus nods. "Every single one."

At that, Alec lets out a sigh of relief. "By the angel," he groans into his hands, hiding his face as Magnus takes a seat beside him on the bed. "I'm so sorry for running away like that. I still can't believe it happened.” 

“All that matters is that you're okay now.” He pauses, looking Alec over. “You are fine, right? You didn’t hurt yourself when you jumped?”

Alec shakes his head. “I’m good now, I promise.” He’s reckless but he’s stupid. He made his way up to Magnus’ loft through the balcony more than once. He’s more than capable of leaving that way as well. Though he now makes an effort to use the front door more often than not, because Magnus is still uneasy about Alec and balconies after the whole Iris Rouse thing. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“I'm sorry, too. Was it the spiders in specific that bothered you or just the whole creepy setting in general?" Magnus groans. "I can't believe I didn't warn a Shadowhunter about the scene they were walking into. You must have gotten one hell of an adrenaline kick."

"It was the spiders," Alec admits even though it physically pains him. "It has nothing to do with me being a Shadowhunter. I didn't fall into a pit of spider demons when I was a kid or anything like that. There's no tragic backstory.” He rubs at the back of his neck. “They've just always bothered me."

"So I'm not dating Batman after all," Magnus jokes, trying to lighten the mood. 

Alec blinks at him. "Who?"

Magnus shakes his head. "Never mind that." He softens his voice as he asks, "Is there a reason you've never mentioned this before?"

Alec shrugs. "Not really? It's just never come up." Alec pulls at the loose thread from his pillow, not meeting Magnus' eyes. He’s beyond embarrassed. It’s one thing to have his sibling lightly tease him when he calls them for assistance to get rid of the particularly nasty looking spider that somehow managed to wander into his room. But Magnus finding out about his ridiculous fear the way that he did? He’ll never recover.

He's lucky if Magnus doesn't dump him over this. A tough Shadowhunter who’s terrified of spiders. What a joke. He still remembers all the cruel pranks from his academy days when the word about his irrational fear somehow got out. He can handle the occasional spider on his own if there is no assistance nearby, if only by placing a bowl over it and leaving it for someone else to deal with later. But he never lost his composure quite like this before.

And especially not in front of Magnus.

He says as much to Magnus, who patiently listens to his stumbling explanation and takes it all in with a thoughtful look. He doesn't judge or laugh or mock him, which Alec knows he wouldn't but has irrationally been expecting anyway.

He simply says, "I don't like deep water."

Alec frowns before he can stop himself. "But you're always talking about whisking me away to all of those tropical destinations."

Magnus chuckles lightly. "The sea is different. If the water is calm and clear and buoyant enough that you can't really sink, it's fine. Most of the time at least. But murky deep water, like lakes or swamps or rivers where you can't see anything and it's cold and nasty and-" He shivers. "Even the thought of it really freaks me out."

"You have a really good reason for your fear, though," Alec can't help but point out. Magnus had told him what happened to him as a child, how his stepfather tried to drown him and his consequent fear of water made sense. Alec would be traumatized, too. Anyone would.

"Maybe," Magnus agrees. "But I remember finding the sight of that lake unsettling even before that. I guess we’ll never truly know now."

Alec nods, feeling a little better but not by much. His dramatic reaction was definitely unjustified, considering that those spiders probably weren’t even real, but plastic toys magicked into reality. Magnus wasn’t cruel enough to do that to actual animals.

“Fears are not always rational,” Magnus says. “There is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“I jumped from your balcony, Magnus,” Alec says bluntly. “You do have to admit that it was a little much.”

Magnus takes a deep breath, biting his lip and Alec knows that he’s trying to keep his composure and not laugh because yeah, Alec can see the humor. But he appreciates the thought.

“Maybe so,” Magnus eventually agrees. “But I promise not to hold it against you.”

Alec lets out a breath of relief. He knows that Magnus won’t tell anyone and yet a part of him was still worried. He has no doubt that it will come up in teasing remarks in the future, but never with any malice and it’s an incredible feeling, knowing that he’s with someone who cares so much about his comfort and wellbeing.

“Thank you,” Alec says, feeling himself finally relax. “For just… always being yourself.”

“And thank you for trusting me with this,” Magnus replies. He gets up from the bed and offers his hand. “Do you want to go back to the loft with me? The party hasn’t started yet.”

Alec thinks about it. Even knowing that the spiders are gone, he isn’t sure he can handle being there quite so soon. Not when he’s still feeling so itchy and paranoid. He’s already done a patrol of his own room with a can of bug spray at the ready just to make sure none of the spiders followed him home. 

“I don’t think I can tonight,” he says and Magnus nods in understanding. “But don’t even think about cancelling it on my account. Go and enjoy your party. I’ll be fine here on my own.”

Magnus bites at his lip. “Are you sure?”

Alec nods and Magnus leans in for what Alec is sure is supposed to be a quick kiss that turns into a long, lingering one that ends with both of them sprawled over Alec’s bed. Alec realizes that this is the first time he’s had Magnus in his bed and it’s surprisingly nice. He only wishes it happened under different circumstances.

“Your bed is more comfortable than I was expecting,” Magnus says and Alec rolls his eyes, exasperated.

“As I keep telling you, we’re not all savages sleeping on hospital cots and building our own fires to keep warm.”

Magnus shoots a pointed look to the fireplace on the wall across the bed and Alec digs his fingers lightly into his side in retaliation, letting out a sudden shriek of laughter. 

“Sorry,” Alec quickly apologizes, knowing full well that Magnus won’t hesitate to retaliate and Alec is the more ticklish one out of two of them.

“I’ll let it go just this once,” Magnus tells him with a playful glare as he settles back down. “Don’t expect to be let off the hook next time.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

They stay in bed for the next half hour, talking in low voices until it’s time for Magnus to return to the loft and welcome his guests. Alec sends him off with a good luck kiss, feeling a little guilty for not coming along but determined to make the best of his night in.

His resolve doesn’t last long.

Magnus makes sure that he isn’t left out of anything, constantly sending him pictures of the best costumes and his snarky commentary about ungrateful guests and Alec so desperately wishes he was there by his side instead of just seeing him through the screen, having fun with all of their friends.

“Are you sure that there’s no spiders left?” he asks when he finally folds and calls Magnus.

“Not a single one,” Magnus says, calm and reassuring.

“Save a drink for me, would you? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

And even though he can’t see him, Alec can hear him smile as he says, “I’m way ahead of you, darling.”

A moment later, a portal shimmers into existence right there in his bedroom and Alec shakes his head with a grin.

The spiders might have won one battle, but they were not going to win the war. Not if Alec has anything to say about it.

Alec takes in a deep, steadying breath and steps through the portal.


End file.
